A&E queues stop ambulances hitting life-and-death targets

Last year crews in England, Wales and Northern Ireland wasted more than 500,000 hours waiting to hand over patients to A&EDAN KITWOOD/GETTY IMAGES

Almost all ambulance trusts are failing to reach dying patients fast enough as long queues at accident and emergency departments cause delays.

Life-or-death calls are supposed to be responded to within eight minutes but results from a freedom of information request reveal that only one of the 13 trusts meets the targets.

Last year crews in England, Wales and Northern Ireland wasted more than 500,000 hours waiting to hand over patients to A&E, a figure that more than doubled in two years. This is the equivalent of 286 crews not being able to respond to emergencies for a whole year, according to an investigation by the BBC.

Mark Holland, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said that the lack of funding for social care…